Who Influenced Me The Most?
This post takes my answers to some interesting questions that my friend Brendan Norman recently asked me on my Facebook profile. Also, with 16 Chess.com posts in the last 48 hours, it's not like many people will read this anyway, so a fast post is a good post 
My original question was: Which chess player inspires you the most?
After responding, Brendan observed:
"Max, you didn't answer your own question! 
Which players influenced YOU most? I'm curious."
My reply:
"Well, your question is slightly different but I am happy to answer both 
Like you, at the moment I don't feel there is one chess player that inspires me way more than the others. Every day I learn something new from someone else and it's a different person each time, so it's hard to compare. On purely chess playing terms, my answer would have been Firouzja before the Magnus Invitational. I tend to be most inspired by whoever plays best at the time
The people who inspire me most of all now are generally not chess players, but those who succeeded in other fields. Observing high performance in other fields gives me more room to learn new things and some fresh perspectives.
As for who influenced me the most in the past - probably my chess trainers. In recent times, I think IM Cyrus Lakdawala influenced me the most from a 'human' perspective, out of the chess players."
Brendan responded by asking whether I was most influenced by people like Napoleon Hill and others. My answer:
"There are many people I have learned from, Napoleon Hill is certainly one (and I wouldn't have my current career without his invention of the 'mastermind') but I wouldn't say he's the primary influence."
Brendon continued our discussion with another tough question:
"Could I ask which players you think had the greatest influence on your playing style?"
This was a tough one for me, but eventually, I answered with a few influences:
"Funnily enough, about 8-10 years ago, one of my good friends told me it was FM Manuel Weeks, indirectly, because he worked with my first coach, IM John-Paul Wallace, a lot, and my friend told me he noticed Manuel's influence in my own play.
Now, it is hard to say. Obviously I learned a tremendous amount from GM Ian Rogers, and his influence gave my play a dynamic feel that was somewhat lacking at a key moment in my career (when I was stuck around 2200-2250), but stylistically I think I am quite different to him. But it is hard to say - again, too many players influenced me to single out one.
My favourite player for the last 10 years has been Magnus Carlsen, and I studied 'Wonderboy' many times in 2004. So that's an obvious candidate and may well be the right answer, but I don't know."
So, there you have it. My current answer is either FM Manuel Weeks, GM Ian Rogers, or GM Magnus Carlsen, but I am not sure which is the most correct
If you read this post to the very end, type 'I'm here!' in the comments. And we'll see you in the next post!
PS I started uploading my chess video lessons again on my Youtube channel. You can check it out here.
